Spidroin-Based Biomaterials in Tissue Engineering: General Approaches and Potential Stem Cell Therapies

Figure 6

Schematic illustration of spidroin-based biomaterials for various tissue engineering applications. (a) For lung tissue engineering, FN-4RepCT silk protein forms a layer of nanofibrils via self-assembling at the liquid-air interface. The membrane enables the rapid formation of a confluent cell layer of human keratinocytes on either side. (b) For vascularization, the endothelial cells (ECs) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were cocultured on the recombinant spider silk (4RepCT) foams, and it was found that MSCs grew millimeter long branched sprouts in the foam within two weeks. (c) For bone and cartilage regeneration, the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) cultured on recombinant protein films can promote osteogenic differentiation by enhancing biomineralization. (d) For peripheral nerve repair, the neural stem cells (NSCs) cultured on the 4RepCT matrices differentiated efficiently into neurons after processing the recombinant protein including the extracellular signaling factor BMP4 or a combination of BMP4 and the signaling factor Wnt3a.